Racism has reared its head at an AFL game again, as Essendon terminated the membership of a supporter who racially abused Sydney’s Adam Goodes during Friday’s game at Etihad Stadium.

Goodes was not aware of the incident at the time but Essendon’s chief operating officer, Xavier Campbell, said racism would not be tolerated.

"As a club, we do not accept appalling behaviour of this nature - no matter your race, religion or gender, football is a game of inclusion," said Campbell. "It is extremely disappointing incidents of this nature are still occurring."

Campbell also apologised to Goodes. "On behalf of the entire Essendon Football Club, I want to publicly apologise to Adam Goodes for this extremely disappointing incident," Campbell said. "Essendon prides itself on diversity and inclusion – players and fans deserve and expect the right to enjoy sport free from any form of abuse or harassment.

"As a club, we will now work even harder to educate our members and supporters about racial vilification and cultural awareness in our game."

The supporter was ejected from the stadium after fans reported his behaviour to police. "I commend our supporters for taking a stand and having the courage to report this matter to the appropriate authorities," said Campbell. "If you're going to behave in this manner, we don't want you attending our games.

It is not the first time Goodes – who was named Australian of the Year – has had to contend with racist abuse from fans. Last year, a 13-year-old Collingwood fan called the player “an ape”. On that occasion Goodes heard the comments and alerted stewards to the girl, who was ejected from the stadium.

Unfortunately, the incident does not appear to be an isolated one. On Tuesday the Western Bulldogs said one of their fans had racially abused Melbourne’s Neville Jetta during the teams’ match on 12 May.

"We are ashamed of the actions of this person who by his actions has damaged the fabric and the reputation of our club," the Bulldogs chairman, Peter Gordon, said in a statement. "We have no tolerance for ignorant racial abuse and we will continue to make efforts to identify this person and to deal with him under our supporters' code of conduct.

"It has been the club's initiative to make this matter public and to acknowledge the wrongdoing of one of our own supporters. When racist abuse rears its ugly head, we will never as a club do what this person has done ... disappear into anonymity. It happened. One of our own supporters did it. We are all diminished as a consequence. But we will not let it pass.”

Jetta said both he and his family had been affected by the abuse. "It's completely unacceptable that these sorts of comments still exist in our society today," he said. "I was upset that my family and friends were subjected to this type of behaviour and that it still exists within the AFL, as they have done a terrific job in educating society that racial vilification is unacceptable. This is an opportunity to educate society. Just because I didn't hear the remark firsthand, this doesn't mean that it is any less offensive or hurtful."